After some time I decide to start playing Oblivion again. All went well, but then I got out of the sewers and among the people of Cyrodiil. And then I started to notice that something was wrong. I could not rally put my finger on what it was, but then I realised. Some of the people in their clothing and armours just looked strange. It was as if the clothing and armours did not really fit them. Most of them seemed somehow to have very large lower belly and buttocks while this does not correspond with their actual bodies. At first i thought that this was due to me being used to body mods, but then I tried to look some of the msot painful ones in Nifskope and here are some pics of what I have found out:

http://img205.imageshack.us/f/gmf2.jpg/
http://img576.imageshack.us/i/gms2.jpg/
http://img203.imageshack.us/f/cmfa.jpg/

You can see that these items do not really fit the body and that they do the PC and NPCs look sort of fat. But why is that?
I never concidered myslef a person who would care too much about looks and pretty graphics in the game, but this could sort of deter me from playing the game.

What about you, what do you think about this? Does it bother you as well? Would it be acceptable for you in TES V for you

Well, that's a robe for ya. They sort of tend to get wider in the lower parts.

As for the other ones, well I'm not sure what to say. I guess I don't care that much. I mean, I never realized it myself, so...

I suppose some could argue that it's more realistic. But no, it really isn't. It might make you look slightly huskier but not as much as that. And certainly not for things like leather armor. Light armor is supposed to be light but that looks anything but. It might be a good idea for a mod for someone to go in and shrink a few of those vertices a little closer together.

Well, takne into concideration that the robe is belted and the belt gives several inches on either way, I do not know, it just seems a bit silly to me. Maybe I'm jsut soo sensitive to this. The probem is that I have tried to make the pictures with only these two items, I guess it would be similar with others, though.

put on a regular t-shirt. look at how it doesn't hug your body completely

unless it's skinny fit, but i doublt the residents of tamriel care too much about metrosixual aesthetics

I'd say look at FO3's armor and cloths, as that is the newest Beth game. The armor and clothing there doesn't make my character look fat or out of proportion.

I never really noticed this, actually, it certainly never bothered me that much, of course I'm not in the habit of closely comparing the armored and unarmored bodies.

To be fair, though, unless clothing is designed to be completely form fitting, it probably isn't going to completely reflect the shape of your unclothed body, now I don't really know much about the details of Medieval armor, but at least for plate mail type things, I could imagine that they could easily make your physique look different while wearing them, and while the joints of glass armor appear to be chain, the actual glass parts in Oblivion look pretty plate-like to me. On the other hand, for leather to be like this is less excusable. But still it never really bothered me, honestly, I'm more concerned about whether the armor designs look good than how well it fits my character's physique, as long as there aren't any clipping issues or seams visible between the armor and exposed skin, and it isn't obvious that there's no way my character's body could actually fit in the armor, and as for whether the designs look good or not, some do, and some don't.

Ive noticed what you mean but honestly it doesnt bother me. At least not as much as the fact that almost every peice of armor in oblivion is generic medieval/generic elvish in design with way too few closed face helms, i know its the imperial province (home of knights and horses etc) but surely a few dunmer would have brought their traditional armor with them when they moved there... oh well, sorry to rant.
Thank god for mods...and morrowind.

It bothered me enough that until I learned to model the only vanilla armor I would use was the DB shrouded armor. Honestly, all of the other male armors are 'waaaayyy' oversized and IMO pretty ugly.

Well, but to make you look bulkier, it would make sense to also make the area on shoulders, chest and arms bigger. But if you look at the pictures, the chest is hugged almost perfectly, and so are the arms. the biggest berth is given to hips and waist



Well, the fact that the armour and clothing do not correspond perfectly is only my way of saying that it looks bad for me. I do not know, but I do not really want my characters to look fat or out of proportion in one armour, while it is better in another. I see this as an inconsistency as well.

Never really noticed it, but I never liked much of the design in general, so I'm not surprised. Armor would bulk you out a little, but if it stood out as much as that model does, it would be very hard to move, the armor would bump into itself, the way flabby arms knock into manboobs.

As for the robe, that would be much bulkier, BUT it would rest perfectly flush (or so) on the tops of the shoulders and arms, and as you said, the belt should be tight to the skin.

Maybe they did this on purpose so every NPCs fat face didn't look like a cartoon walrus head on a popsicle stick.

I think Oblivion armors were done fairly well, and acoutrement such as quivers were done excellently. But I think that the wide legged stance that the characters are given in generation, equipping, and in some walking makes everything render and look way too bulky, clothing wise.

Also, posture is very bad in Oblivion. Lots of humped over shoulders on some characters. Much like real life ; )